"...you have to work hard and you've got to have those days when you don't feel like doing it, and when you feel like you're 19 years old, but you've got to switch, because this is a man's game. You've got to understand that."

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Mlive.com said:

In Monday's practice, two days before his professional debut, Drummond got a coach's tongue-lashing for some unfocused light-heartedness.

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Maggette's seems a pretty potent way to put in perspective what it's like for a kid to be playing in the NBA, and the bit about Frank having to give Drummond a "tongue-lashing" for his "light-heartedness" indicates that the coaches and staff realize that, if Drummond is ever going to grow up, he needs to learn to work hard and treat this as a job. This, to me, is the crux of the reason that they're really hesitant about starting him; they want him to get better, and they know his attitude has to be more consistently "adult" before his game can get as good as it's going to be.

In other words, they're not treating him with kid gloves, they're treating him like an adult while knowing - but not accepting - that he's still a kid. This all isn't about talent development so much as about attitude development; I've never seen it done outright before at this level, I'm floored that they're doing it, and I absolutely love that they are. (It really helps that everyone on the team seems to be on the same page with this.)

Thanks for posting that. It's the part of a player that the coaches see and the fans don't.

I trust that LFrank will do the right things... whereas I would have been very suspicious of Brown (overbearing), Flip (underbearing), Curry (overwhelmed), and Kuester (wrong personality).

While it's really boring watching Maxiell playing out of position, the coach has to manage the development of a teenager carefully. That probably means making Drummond earn minutes by playing AND acting the right way. The key to that system is coming through with the rewards when the player does the right things.

I have some leadership responsibilities in my job.
I always lead from the position of "I assume that you can do what I ask of you perfectly until you prove to me otherwise".
I think that it's inhibiting to people when you come at it from the perspective of "You're new and your probably an idiot. I'm gonna take it really slow with you until you show me that you can handle the expectations that I have for you".

I've found that having a little faith and some high expectations really shortens the learning curve with new people.

I always lead from the position of "I assume that you can do what I ask of you perfectly until you prove to me otherwise".

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This was so hard for me to learn. Leading became enjoyable and much less stressful once I realized it.

I think we have a built in bias to tighten up when the stakes get high. And even the perception of high stakes creates a lot of extra stress which hurts things like being able to think clearly, react logically, exercise patience.

It's very hard to overcome that basic animal programming but totally awesome when we can.

This was so hard for me to learn. Leading became enjoyable and much less stressful once I realized it.

I think we have a built in bias to tighten up when the stakes get high. And even the perception of high stakes creates a lot of extra stress which hurts things like being able to think clearly, react logically, exercise patience.

It's very hard to overcome that basic animal programming but totally awesome when we can.

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It's worked well for me and I think my team appreciates it.
Responsibility really empowers people and can be one of the most motivational elements to a person.

As a manager, you have to be pretty perceptive of your team. I can pretty much tell if someone has what it takes by the questions that they ask and the approach to problem solving that they use. If someone askes me a question about a project a week into it that should have been asked the first day, I know we're in trouble and I need to get them some help.

As long as Andre askes the right questions and makes mistakes that a rookie NBA Center is expected to make, I have no problems putting him out there. It sounds simplistic but the more minutes he gets, the more experiences he'll have. I'd rather him have some negative experiences than no experiences at all.

I have some leadership responsibilities in my job.
I always lead from the position of "I assume that you can do what I ask of you perfectly until you prove to me otherwise".
I think that it's inhibiting to people when you come at it from the perspective of "You're new and your probably an idiot. I'm gonna take it really slow with you until you show me that you can handle the expectations that I have for you".

I've found that having a little faith and some high expectations really shortens the learning curve with new people.

Start him.
What's the worst thing that can happen?

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How many teenagers do you have working for you, and how many millions of people are microjudging every success and failure that those team members make?

19 year olds are fairly crazy. Drummond seems like he's way above average in terms of maturity though.

Here is how he did in the pre-season:

2nd in pts/36 at 19.6. (behind Maggette, who had small sample size)
1st in FG% at .623
1st in rebounding at 12.8 (way ahead of everybody else)
2nd to last in assist rate (just ahead of Maxiell!)
middle of the pack in steals
1st in block rate (6 times higher rate than Monroe)
very low turnovers
average 6 personal fouls per 36 min (same as Daye, Maxiell, and Russian Gentleman...Jerebko was also close behind)

So, pros to starting him:

Scoring, efficiency, rebounding, shot blocking

cons:
high foul rate, need to break him emotionally before rebuilding him or trading him

Bring along gradually is a general way to raise a professional and assume good until prove otherwise is a general way to filter people.

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This is the strategy that I will use for the 3 rookies on my fantasy Keeper League team. They will ride the pine for the first half of the season. They will have to earn their playing time in practice.

As far as the judges, who cares? You can't do anything about what other people think. You can only do your best, whether a million, one or no one is watching.

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As a teacher and coach, I also work with teenagers all the time, and you're right - treating them like adults works awesome.

However, professional basketball is a different world from anything we're used to. If a teen cares and makes a mistake where you work, I'm sure you'll agree that you can pat them on the back and tell them that as long as they don't do it again, caring is what counts - and they'll get better. That's not the case with the NBA; these guys aren't working menial, low-wage, low-responsibility jobs. Teens (and, admittedly, many adults) can be emotionally fragile, and while it's easy to say "you can't do anything about what other people think," remember back to when you were in high school and think about how much you assumed everyone cared about everything you did all the time. Now imagine that same self in a world where everyone actually did care about you, where your agent and your publicist are telling you to interact with your fans on Twitter in order to build your brand, where you are the next great hope for a team with championship pedigree. Imagine going out and being the starting center, and having a bad game where you get schooled by Kevin Garnett, grabbing 4 points and 3 boards and fouling out in 22 minutes of play after shooting 1-6 on FTs. Imagine what it would be like for you knowing that the team is counting on you and that you let them down. You want to be accepted and respected by these guys that are mostly older than you, you want to do them right, and you fail. You get fans calling you "soft" or "lazy." You got Garnett in your ear - a guy that you've looked up to for years - telling you that you suck, that you're weak, that you should just "go home, little kid, this is a man's game." You start to doubt yourself.

Meanwhile, your team is counting on you, and by playing you is telling you that you are where they expect you to be. But as a teenager you've never dealt with this stuff on this level before. You magnify your own mistakes - that's what teenagers do. You start to overcorrect on your free throws. You take an extra split second on your defensive positioning. You go up for a layup and it's blocked, so you don't go up as hard next time.

You can see where I'm going with this. I'm not saying that Detroit should treat him with "kid gloves," but they do have a better understanding of whether or not he's emotionally ready to be the focal point of a multi-hundred million dollar business. Is he physically capable? I don't think there's any doubt that he is, and he'll play. But is he ready to be "the man"? I don't think so. Is he physically ready to go head-to-head for 30 minutes a game against the best in the business? Yes. Is he emotionally ready? I don't know. The Pistons' brass seems to believe that he isn't, otherwise he would start. They want him to be a harder worker than he ever has been before, and that is a personality trait that takes time to develop. If their goals are for him to go out and be a solid 10/10/2 starter that will help them get to the playoffs, well, he's there right now and they should start him. But if their goals are for him to be a 20/15/3 superstar that can put the team on his back and help lead them to a championship, then he you need to make sure he can handle it; if he has yet to develop the emotional fortitude and the initiative to do it on his own, then you need a carrot to dangle in front of him until he picks it up himself.

I'm glad that the Pistons aren't expecting him to figure it out himself. I don't want them to bring him along slowly - I want them to tell him where he needs to be and then hold that line and wait for him to get there. In the meantime, yes, he needs to fine-tune a lot of his game, and he can do that getting 15-20 minutes a night off the bench. They can take that film and experience and go over it with him, and they can point to the vets (hopefully) and say so-and-so is starting because he's doing such-and-such. Points and boards and blocks aren't enough in a league where the talent gap is so small and where a single missed shot opportunity in the second quarter can be the difference in the outcome of the game. If you want Drummond to be where you expect that he can go, you tell him what you want out of him, show him how to do it, give him a taste of what he'll get when he gets there, and hold those expectations. That's what I see the Pistons doing, and I like it.

Hmmm, what would inspire a 19 year old 7-footer?
...Hearing Mason yelling your name in pre-game intros as fireworks are shooting off behind you?; ...Hearing the crowd go crazy as you run on to the floor and high-five your teamates? ...Knowing that your coach expects that you're gonna make some mistakes but he still thinks that you can hold your own against Omer Asik?

or

Sitting on the bench watching your fellow rookie classmates get a head start on their careers while you try to earn some tablescraps of playing time in practice.

I don't think Andre will be emotionally damaged if Kevin Garnett gets in his grill. I think being stoked that your coach has enough faith in you to check a hall-of-famer would more than outweigh any Austin Daye-like wussyness.
If you're afraid of a player being THAT emotionally weak, you shouldn't have drafted him in the first place.

I don't know if we've had a rookie with the same impact and Drummond since Dumars became GM. Monroe took a while to get acclimated and Knight - you could see the potential as he took his licks on the floor. I think both are good prospects but Drummond does something for this team and fits a certain chemistry that he should start sooner than later. Starting from the get go? I'm personally not going that far but I don't want to wait 2 months for an injury to thrust him into an already weak front court.

I don't know if we've had a rookie with the same impact and Drummond since Dumars became GM. Monroe took a while to get acclimated and Knight - you could see the potential as he took his licks on the floor. I think both are good prospects but Drummond does something for this team and fits a certain chemistry that he should start sooner than later. Starting from the get go? I'm personally not going that far but I don't want to wait 2 months for an injury to thrust him into an already weak front court.

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Judging on the pre-season only, we don't have any player that provides the same impact as Drummond.

I don't think Frank starting Max over Dre is because he considers Max to bring more wins, but because of the work ethic reasons Laimbrane mentioned. I'm fine with this as long as it is for these reasons and he gets 20+ mins a game.

Hmmm, what would inspire a 19 year old 7-footer?
...Hearing Mason yelling your name in pre-game intros as fireworks are shooting off behind you?; ...Hearing the crowd go crazy as you run on to the floor and high-five your teamates? ...Knowing that your coach expects that you're gonna make some mistakes but he still thinks that you can hold your own against Omer Asik?

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You're right. I expect that the Pistons hope that all of that stuff motivate him to work hard and earn it.